Friday Roosevelt Island, Whitney and 2 frivolous treats

Roosevelt Island is a narrow strip of land in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. There is not much of interest on it apart from the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial 4 Freedoms Park which opened last year after a checkered history. It was designed by Louis Kahn, a ‘monumental modernist’ in the early 70’s but he died suddenly and New York was  almost bankrupt. So building didnot start.  In 2010 the project got moving again. I went to see it.

On the way there I saw a very fancy watch shop on Madison Ave with clocks on its outside wall with the current  time in different cities in the world.  Sydney was wrong.

One of the ways of getting  to Roosevelt Island is by  what I would call a cable car. It is called an aerial tramway. There probably is a technical difference. The views are good.

The memorial was interesting. Very plain and stark, but I liked it. It stood out against the cacophony of shapes just over the water in Manhattan.  The 6 lane highway on the eastern shore of Manhattan, that I have objected to at least twice before in this space, was not as intrusive. More like a steady gust of wind than the objectionable din closer .  The ‘4 Freedoms’ are from FDR’s speech in 1941 – freedom of speech, freedom to worship God in the way you want, freedom from poverty and freedom from fear ( not sure I have the order of the last 2 correct) .  There were no coffee shops, nor food carts anywhere in sight, so I sat on a marble wall, eating my very funny tasting muesli bar left over from last weekend’s walk’s freebies, thinking of how fortunate was I .

Next stop was the Whitney Museum of American Art. I had lunch first. After a nice salad I ordered a cappuccino. After several mouthfuls, I thought this is good. In the past , I taste the coffee, and think variations of ‘well, it’s not too bad’ .

After I paid my admission, I went to get a free audio. They wanted photo id but did not accept passports or driving licenses.  Even if I had my whole purse, I have nothing other than my license with my photo on, that I can think of. The lady said she could not give me an audio thing. I had my national trust membership card with me that has my name.  I was very polite and said that while I accepted their rule , I thought it discriminated against retired visitors who come from countries, like Australia, that do not have photo id on anything other than their driving license. ‘Shsh’ she said as she took my NT card and passed me an audio. ‘I agree’ she said.  I enjoyed the exhibition. 2 American artists that I am learning about-   Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe - had about 5 paintings each and lots of info on the audio guide.

I planned on walking home through Central Park getting to the nearby café ( 1 street to cross) in time to try another of their grain-free desserts. Not sure I mentioned – several days ago I stopped in for a piece of no-bake, no grain, no-dairy ( vegan café)  key lime pie which I really enjoyed.  Anyway, I entered Central Park just near the pond with the remote control sail boats . What a good idea – why not now. I should have paid closer attention to the wind though , it would have been better if it were stronger.  $11 for half an hour seemed like good value to me. I think a horse ride in one of those carriages is about $50 fro 20 minutes.   I had 2 controls . One lever – I was supposed to move left if I wanted the boat to go left and right if I wanted the boat to go right. The second lever either pulled the main sheet  in or let it out ( that is not what the explainer said, but from a few other things he said he clearly had never been in a sailing boat). The first lever was a problem initially. On a small boat you move the tiller to the opposite direction of you want to go, not the same, like this lever.  I found if I talked to myself, left, right, not ‘port’ ‘starboard’,  I could manage. Several people came up to me and it was a bit hard to be polite. I wanted all my 30 minutes. There were 2 things sticking out of the water and I pretended they were buoys I had to go around.  There were several controller-less boats sailing around that had to be avoided. Another guy was operating a boat near me. Only once  did one of my childhood mantras ‘port gives way to starboard’ come into my head. What use it would have been is another matter..

Now, my question is ‘was that frivolous fun?’  I concentrated quite hard for 30 minutes, so probably not.

I walked on through the park, photographed another few bridges and got to the information place. I have realised that I have only sent 1 postcard – to my eldest granddaughter. I bought a few.  Near the info place is a largish carousel. I watched it for a while and decided that to have a ride would definitely be frivolous. So, I did. I hope some of my self-taken photos will turn out as proof.  I thought if I was there with anyone else, we would have had a ride, so why shouldnot I?   My horse went up and down, and the horses went quite quickly. I had to hold on, so taking a photo  required concentration.

Dinner was a Spanish place. ( cross 1street)  I  did not recognise any of the wines so picked one based on the odd name  sangre de toro   ( bull’s blood) – a white  wine .  ???    

It was OK. The seafood paella was delicious and I had no desert.